Parenting
Before starting my blog on the above subject , I just brushed through Google to find what is the dictionary meaning of “parenting” and I found this :
The rearing of a child or children, especially the care, love, and guidance given by a parent.
Yesterday night , when I was listening to soft music in my den, alone and awake, thinking of my two children , who lives on the other side of the globe with their marital company, on how they grew in our joint family in Mylapore . I do not know what is parenting when my daughter was born and I was just 26.
Though I read lot of books it never came to my mind to select a book on the subject of this blog. My parents were there at that time and we , five children, were brought up by them and all of us had the basic graduation in education and I got settled with an employment wherein my dad was also working.
I recalled those good old days and questioned myself that whether I have fulfilled my obligation of rearing my own child , especially the care, love, and guidance!
To the best of my knowledge I gave it to my daughter, being the first child and also to my son , who was born five years later.
I still remember the time I spent with them during they grew from childhood to adolescent . I was fortunate enough with an 8 to 5 job at the time of their need for me .
The first five years for my daughter must be a wonderful time as me and my wife could spend enough time with her from her crawling stage to walking and till she reached the age of five. After my son’s birth she felt that the attention on her is little less and started to sleep with her grandparents.
But I never deprived her my time and we started moving as a family of four to all places in my bike in and around Mylapore and Madras .Evening session of playing tennis in our terrace with my son is a routine .There was a super market by name , VITAN in Luz corner and we all four visits there most often for buying GIJO toys and other play things and greeting cards.
I used to take them to all temples and especially during festival season. We never miss the Christmas and New Year eve and they enjoy the festive mood in San Thom Basilica , year after year. A ride in my ‘Chetak’ scooter, for my two kids, must be an everlasting happy memory during the New Year eve trip to Mount Road. We used to take them only to English movies which can be enjoyed by children and visited all libraries and yearly book fair. A huge collection of books is in my personal library and few of the oldest books were bought when my daughter started to speak .Both of them are good artists from childhood.
To my capacity I used to take them out to good hotels in Mylapore , Shanthi Vihar & Udupi Sukha Nivas. Beyond this I create an atmosphere of a dim light dinner on their bed in our home, with music around! They love only western music as I love it and play to them.
Pocket video games they had and also video game with a hand gear to play on the television screen. About the choice of dress they wore I need to mention here as my wife is an expert in buying the right dress for them and they love her choice.
The encouragement in fine arts made them to won prizes in the annual sports function for their fine dance for movie songs on the stage of madras Medical College grounds in January 1990. My daughter was 10 and my son was 5 at that time and the video is posted in my youtube channel for the happiness sharing of mine. They were shy to see their innocence performance among a big audience of my company, Richardson & Cruddas.
Coming to education, they were given a good education ina reputed school in our area and studied in English medium only. During their school life, they participate in all competitions and I support them in making science gadgets, a Sputnik , which won a prize in my son’s school annual science fair. My daughter was explaining on ‘virtual reality’ through computer in her school, when I was not a computer literate. My wife put my daughter in Bharahta Natyam class and she went up to Salangai pooja. My son was good at art and won every year ,from standard one to class 12 ,prizes for his art contribution. The encouragement given to them by me and wife took them to shine in extracurricular activities.
Joint family living helped me and my wife a lot to give my children , the attention which they need, love and enjoy. I have express my gratitude to my uncle, father’s elder brother, who took them in their childhood days to Beach, Park , Museum , exhibitions and theatres , number of times and they call him fondly “ Dhoppa”. He is no more now and also my parents.
From the bookish point of view , parenting ends when they become adolescent , but guidance continued by us till they choose an academic curriculum. Of course choosing their partner was not with us but both of them have chosen a right partner to our fullest satisfaction .
My daughter wrote about me that we were the cause for her spiritual inclination and my son wrote that we gave him a good education and full freedom.
They are in a position to guide us ( parenting ) at our old age on how to go about caring our health and wealth ! They are the wealth for us and we love them very much and pray for their families good health more than us.
Coming back to parenting , my question to myself remains – whether did I gave my children, daughter and son , the right parenting ? I leave the answers to my children and of course my wife too can answer my question !
